As a
member of the Ninety-Two Club, a club for people
who have visited each
of the ninety-two gounds of the Premiership,
Championship, League One
and Two, I was anxious to visit Brighton’s
new American Express
Community Stadium.

I travelled from London by train, changing at
Lewes. As there is no
suitable pub near the ground I used the Royal Oak
in Lewes for
pre-match refreshment. Many Brighton fans also use
the Lansdown Arms.
Both of these are situated five minutes walk from
the station turning
right out of the exit. The Lansdown is at the foot
of the hill and The
Royal Oak two minutes walk further up the hill.

I had
pre-ordered my ticket and collected it two and a
half hours before the
game. By the time I returned forty minutes before
kick off the queue
for pre-ordered tickets was two hundred yards
long. The general
ambience of the ground is extremely good. I was in
the East Stand where
there is plenty of room and plenty of food and
drink outlets. The seats
are padded and comfortable. The leg room again is
comfortable. The site
lines from the side are straight, meaning that
your view at the near
side of the far end of the pitch can be easily
obscured by people
standing or leaning across your line of vision,
but this is a minor
inconvenience.

After
the match had ended , the trains from Lewes and
Brighton were full and
standing for sometime before the match but these
are only short
journeys. By train, Falmer station is seven
minutes from Lewes and
fifteen minutes from Brighton. It should be
noted that particularly in
the evening it is usually far quicker to return
north via Brighton as
the north-bound trains are much more plentiful
as opposed to Lewes.
There is an excellent tea bar outside the main
entrance of Falmer
station. Tea 70p and bacon baps £2.